News and Reviews

Press Releases

Fiction Reading with Professor Angèle Kingué — Date: TBA -- Due to inclement weather tonight's reading with Professor Angèle Kingué has been postponed. A new date will be announced shortly.

Bucknell author Angèle Kingué will read from the new translation ofher novel "Venus of Khala-Kanti" at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 2 in Bucknell Hall. The reading will be followed by a book signing. Discounted copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event (cash only). All are invited to attend."Venus of Khala-Kanti" is a recent addition to the Griot Project Book Series. The Griot Project Book Series, from the Griot Institute for Africana Studies in partnership with Bucknell University Press, publishes monographs, collections of essays, poetry, and prose exploring the aesthetics, art, history, and culture of African America and the African diaspora. Expansive and inclusive in its appeal and significance, works in the Griot Project Book Series appeal to academics, artists, and lay readers and thinkers alike.

Bucknell University Press and Library & IT offer Book Collecting Prize

At a time when bookstores are closing, electronic texts are proliferating, and libraries are investing more and more of their resources into electronic media, it is easy for people to begin to see books as no more than discrete functional or disposable objects. This prize offers students the opportunity to build their own book collections. It encourages students to reflect on their lives, their learning, and their personal interests. Behind these considerations lie the larger recognition of the importance of the Ellen Clarke Bertrand Library and the University Press to the Bucknell campus, for every great university and institution of learning has, at its center, a great library and a great press.

This prize is open to all Bucknell students. The winner will receive $500. To enter, students must submit a bibliography of their collection together with a short essay (1000-2000 words) explaining the theme and significance of the collection. The deadline for submissions isJanuary 30, 2015. A few shortlisted candidates may be invited to talk about their collection with the judges. Submissions should be sent to Pam Dailey at pamelia.dailey@bucknell.edu or via campus mail to Bucknell University Press, 6 Taylor Hall.

The judges will make their decision based on the intelligence and originality of the collection, its coherence as a collection, as well as the thought, creativity, and persistence demonstrated by the collector and the condition of the books. The monetary value of the collections will not be a factor in determining the winning entry — a coherent collection of modern paperbacks or comic books is as valid an entry as a collection of rare books from the seventeenth century.

Alana Jajko is 2014-15 Cynthia Fell Intern

Alana is a senior majoring in Studio Art and Creative Writing with a minor in Classics. Her work in art and writing is inspired by her relationships with place and nature. Memories and experiences at her grandfather's farm in Upstate New York have been subjects especially motivating to Alana's work, as well as her more recent travels camping through national and state forests across the United States, and joining a Bucknell Service Trip to the village outskirts of Kathmandu and the wilds of Chitwan National Forest in Nepal. Alana plans to continue exploring the human connection with nature, hoping to experience more of the natural world after she graduates.

Director Greg Clingham Invited to Talk at Emory

In September 2014 Press Director Greg Clingham was invited to talk about scholarly publishing at the Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic inquiry at Emory University. He gave talks entitled "The Serendipity of Scholarly Publishing" and "The Monograph, Open Access, and the Future of Scholarship." Engaged and responsive audiences from several universities in the area suggested how important the future (and the past) of scholarly publishing is to many in universities.

Bucknell Alum Kate Parker to co-edit Transits series

Kate Parker, Assistant Professor of English at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (and Bucknell University alumnus, BA '03, MA '04) has joined Greg Clingham as the series co-editor of Transits: Literature, Thought & Culture, 1650-1850 . Parker, formerly Editorial Associate of the Bucknell Press, has co-edited (with Courtney Weiss Smith, Wesleyan University) Eighteenth-Century Poetry and the Rise of the Novel Reconsidered (2014) in the Transits series, she is the co-editor of the forthcoming Sade's Sensibilities (with Norbert Sclippa, College of Charleston) in Bucknell's Aperçus series, and she has also published articles in Eighteenth-Century Fiction and forthcoming from Studies in the Literary Imagination.

Recent Reviews

Eighteenth-Century Poetry and the Rise of the Novel ReconsideredEdited by Kate Parker and Courtney Weiss Smith"The contributors range from graduate students to the biggest names in the field, but all have produced learned, incisive, and original investigations into the points of contact between genres... This major collection from Bucknell, a leader in 18th-century studies, is required reading for scholars."

—J. T. Lynch, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, Choice (August 2014)

Performing Authorship in Eighteenth-Century English PeriodicalsBy Manushag N. PowellPowell's book is extensive in its survey, providing in-depth examinations of the authorial personae of the Female Tatler, British Apollo, Covent-Garden Journal, Inspector, Drury-Lane Journal, Old Maid, Connoisseur, Female Spectator, and Parrot. Powell 's mastery of her material is exemplary. Necessarily selective in its focus, I think wisely, and choosing to concentrate on lesser-studied journals than The Tatler, The Spectator, The Guardian, and The Rambler, Performing Authorship does not neglect those august periodicals but uses them as more familiar touchstones in its survey of forty-odd years of popular periodicals.

"The examination of eidolons' flexibility and rhetorical trickery will enlighten and entertain readers, who can compare such to those of satirists outside the periodical, such as Swift's in A Tale of a Tub--my sense is that students of satire have long identified artistry comparable to that found here in the essay periodical. The persuasive, ironic, and theatrical posturings shown in the periodicals should lead those "working outside the periodical" to benefit from Powell's study, as Chantel Lavoie observes in her very favorable review for Eighteenth-Century Fiction (26.2 [2013-14], 322-24). Performing Authorship in Eighteenth-Century English Periodicals makes working inside periodicals inviting and interesting."

—J. May, The Eighteenth-Century Intelligencer, September 2014

Two new books, Coyness and Crime in Restoration Comedy: Women's Desire, Deception, and Agency by Peggy Thompson and A Race of Female Patriots: Women and Public Spirit on the British Stage, 1688-1745 by Brett D. Wilson, contribute to ongoing debates about the representation of women on the Restoration and eighteenth-century London stage.... Wilson and Thompson both bring productive attention to the cultural importance of female characters in the drama in this period. Thompson reveals a particular paradox that has escaped previous attention and may have contributed to the misogynistic expressions in the plays; Wilson, by contrast, shows why we should be returning to some of them in the first place.

—Laura J. Rosenthal, University of Maryland, Eighteenth-Century Life (Fall 2014)

A Race of Female Patriots: Women and Public Spirit on the British Stage, 1688-1745 By Brett D. Wilson"A Race of Female Patriots offers a new and intriguing look at several understudied dramas of the period, along with an important reevaluation of she-tragedy as a genre. Far from representing a retreat from the public sphere, she-tragedies advocate a specifically Whig form of governance and place women in the center of political debates...The book will certainly be of great interest to scholars of the eighteenth-century stage."

—Jennifer L. Airy, University of Tulsa, RECTR (Winter 2012)

"Wilson has given us a provocative study of eighteenth-century tragedies. His analysis expands our understanding of the impact of revolutionary rhetoric beyond the more familiar political essays and disputes of the first half of the eighteenth century."

—Melinda S. Zook, Purdue University, Modern Philology (November 2013)

"Upon finishing A Race of Female Patriots I cannot help but praise this book as one that is smart and interesting-a truly enjoyable read. Wilson's prose is clear and thoughtful; his argument is well supported through a sample of small, yet effective, examples of works that epitomize images of public-spirited women on the British stage. The book is a wonderful study of Nicholas Rowe's tragedies, early 18th-century theatre, Settlement history, turn of the century political reform, and late 17th-to mid-18th-century moral philosophy from Locke to Adam Smith. In addition to those readers who will turn to Wilson's book for its analysis of 18th-century drama, A Race of Female Patriots should appeal to scholars, as well as advanced students, of Restoration tragedy and late Restoration literary culture for a host of reasons. Wilson's book calls attention to a subject that rarely figures into the study of Restoration drama: the impact on drama of the Glorious Revolution and William III, the last monarch in the Restoration-era (1660-1700). Wilson's work can inspire us also to revisit female characters, political agency, sovereignty, and private and public good in long 18th-century drama and perhaps to conceive of Restoration characters as public-spirited, female patriots."

—Misty Krueger, University of Maine at Farmington, Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660-1700 (Fall 2013)

Fiction and the philosophy of happiness: Ethical Inquiries in the Age of EnlightenmentBy Brian Michael Norton"The book is well-informed by Enlightenment philosophy, in particular some unfamiliar 18th-century treatises on happiness...the close readings Norton provides are incisive, accessible, and rewarding and each chapter is brilliantly conceived and executed. An important contribution to the growing body of work on literature and ethics."

—D.A. Robinson, Widener University; Choice (September 2014)

Feminism and the Politics of Travel after the EnlightenmentBy Yaël Schlick"In its depth, Schlick's text serves as both a survey of post-Enlightenment travel literature and a detailed analysis of gender in that context. Feminism and the Politics of Travel After the Enlightenment is undoubtedly a valuable resource for the specialist in the field, particularly those with prior knowledge of the period texts with which Schlick so masterfully engages."

Interiors and Narrative: The Spatial Poetics of Machado de Assis, Eça de Queirós and Leopoldo AlasBy Estela Vieira"The author's demonstration of the exploration of inner space (both domestic and personal) by these three major writers who (in different respects) look forward to literary Modernism as much as they look back to the Realist tradition is a well-researched and original contribution to the understanding of their work."

The Essential Poetry of Bohdan Ihor Antonych: Ecstasies and ElegiesTranslated from the Ukrainian by Michael M. Naydan. Introduction by Lidia Stefanowska. "...as far as Naydan's selection is concerned, The Essential Poetry is truly excellent and leaves almost nothing to be desired... A praiseworthy and important step in the process of introducing this major Ukrainian poet (still largely unknown in the West) to readers and scholars in the English-language world."

—Marko Robert Stech, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and York University; Journal of Ukrainian Studies 2012

The French Revolution Debate and the British Novel, 1790-1814: The Struggle for History's AuthorityBy Morgan Rooney"In addition to scholars of the novel, those interested in the French Revolution's impact on Britain and on the uses and abuses of history in political argument will find food for thought in Rooney's study."

Rococo Fiction in France, 1600- 1715: Seditious FrivolityBy Allison Stedman"This thought-provoking study aims to rehabilitate a branch of French prose writing that has been traditionally overlooked or treated with disdain."

Signs of Power in Habsburg Spain and the New WorldEdited by Jason McCloskey and Ignacio López Alemany"Jason McCloskey and Ignacio Lopez Alemany's volume offers a satisfying collection of essays addressing discursive intersections of power and authority and their representations in the early modern Spanish empire...Hispanists, especially those interested in the visual arts, will find Signs of Power worth investigating."

"This is a fascinating collection of essays by different authors who, by means of careful examinations of texts, shed light on the nature, status, and practice of power in sixteenth and early seventeenth-century Spain...the essays in this collection succeed in engaging the reader through their high level of scholarship on varied topics, all focused on the exercise and reception of Spanish Hapsburg power."

Mother and Myth in Spanish Novels: Rewriting the Maternal ArchetypeBy Sandra J. Schumm"...her study is extremely valuable in its focus upon female-authored novels of the early twenty-first century...it belongs in the libraries of all who value cogent arguments about the writers' efforts to transform and commemorate the figure of the mother through a process that 'focuses on remembering the mother...for self-knowledge and individuation, but [based as well in] another objective...to create a different world' (p. 160)"

John Galt: Observations and Conjectures on Literature, History and SocietyEdited by Regina Hewitt"Galt is elusive in the extreme, but this hypothesis is by far the most convincing description of the enigma so far."

Reading 1759: Literary Culture in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Britain and FranceEdited by Shaun Regan"Reading 1759 calls attention to an interesting and pivotal moment in British and French history and reading culture by bringing together eleven essays on different aspects of the literature of that year."

The Matrimonial Trap: Eighteenth Century Women Writers Redefine Marriage.By Laura E. Thomason"Thomason's study of marriage provides a thoughtful examination of how women writers consciously and meticulously honed through writing their identities as women and would-be wives. She demonstrates that these women harnessed the power of rhetorical restraint and audience analysis in ways that were sophisticated and used those skills to empower themselves in a system that was purposefully constructed to strip them of such agency. For a well-trod academic topic, Thomason extracts a refreshing analysis of how female writers employed remarkable rhetorical dexterity to spring the matrimonial trap."

"Bucknell University Press Marks 40th Anniversary"The Bucknell University Press celebrated the 40th anniversary of the publication of its first book in 1969 with a series of literary projects that included publications highlighting Charles Darwin's contributions to science and discovery. || Read more of this Bucknell University website article.

"In Memoriam: Tom Yoseloff"Jack Wheatcroft. December 27, 2007. Despite the richness and fullness of his life, and the peacefulness with which he gave up life, I know that you, family members and friends, gathered here to memorialize him, are grieving deeply, as I am, that Thomas Yoseloff is no more. || Read more of this commemoration eulogy by Jack Wheatcroft.

"Eighteenth-Century Studies from Bucknell"James May, The East Central Intelligencer, VOL. 13, May 1999.Editor's note :Late last year we asked our member Greg Clingham to consider writing an article for the Intelligencer on the involvement of Bucknell University Press in eighteenth-century studies. || Read Greg Clingham's review of 18th Century Studies from Bucknell.

"University Press Flourishing"E.J. Crawford, The Bucknellian, 2006. Toiling in virtual anonymity in the basement of Taylor Hall lies one of the most, productive and growing academic departments within the blanket of the University. And it has nothing to do with Management. It is the Bucknell University Press. || Read more from The Bucknellian.

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